Ottawa Sens Colin Greening checks into new role

Ottawa Senator Colin Greening during a informal practice at Scotiabank Place in Ottawa, Ont. Wednesday Jan 9, 2013. The Senators gathered at Scotiabank Place for the first time to skate as a team since the NHL lockout started. Tony Caldwell/Ottawa Sun/QMI Agency

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A reporter sat down with Colin Greening three days into camp to ask him about the shuffle that has, at least temporarily, drastically changed his role on the Senators.

"The promotion?" winger Erik Condra said with a laugh as he walked by.

Sure, if that's what you call a move that has bumped Greening from a spot alongside top scorers Jason Spezza and Milan Michalek to a line with Condra and Zack Smith, a couple of checkers.

Only six other rookies had more points than Greening last season, but as anyone who knows the strapping Newfoundlander would guess, he's not complaining about giving up his first-line job to Jakob Silfverberg -- however long the experiment lasts.

"Of course not," said Greening. "(Coach) Paul (MacLean) was very up front with me and talked about how they want to give Silfverberg a chance on that line. He talked about how, if we could have different guys on different lines, it gives us more depth. And from what I've seen and what the team has seen, Silfverberg has done very well at camp. I think he's going to thrive on that line. Good for him. I think that's one of the strengths of our team. You can put guys in different positions at different times. You know better than I do, once the game starts, lines can get jumbled around pretty quickly."

Greening had 17 goals and 20 assists while playing all 82 games last season. Over the summer, MacLean asked him to "upgrade" his play, but not a whole lot. The one area is near the goalie's crease. For that, MacLean hopes Greening learns from newcomer Guillaume Latendresse, who is considered a power forward.

"He's comfortable down around the net and he likes to be down there," MacLean said of Latendresse. "That's a skill maybe you can't teach, either, but he enjoys being down there and mucking around. That's a player I think that has a lot of importance, not only on your power play but 5-on-5. He gives us that element we've been looking for, and we're hoping that can be contagious, for some of our young players like Colin, Smith and those kind of players.

"Maybe they can learn from him, that if they can get in there it's not always as comfortable as you'd like to be, but it's not as bad as you think it is, either. The biggest thing about being down in front of the net and mucking around, you really don't think a lot of times you have a lot of time. But if you just take a second, you have a little more time than you think. And sometimes if you actually have somebody on your team that's been there, done that and can show you, its way easier to learn than if someone is just telling you."

Greening thinks he improved while playing in Denmark during the lockout.

"I think I learned how to skate on a bigger surface," he said. "I think I gained a little more confidence. They looked to me as the go-to guy, which I haven't had that role in quite a few years, so that was nice to do. That brings back confidence and hopefully that translates to the game over here."

Now, his only goal is to play in every game, in whatever role he's asked.